Dear Members of Congress,
We know the price of incompetence and neglect when it comes to
protecting American citizens from terrorist attacks. Perhaps even
more sadly, we are now learning the price of incompetence and
neglect when it comes to protecting Americans from natural
disasters such as hurricane Katrina. Today, four years post-9/11,
we, as five 9/11 widows who fought for the creation of the 9/11
Commission, are unable to assume that our leaders will be vigilant
and responsible when it comes to doing everything and anything
within their abilities to protect innocent American citizens from
either man-made or natural disasters.
Notably, the 9/11 Commission's Final Report identified four
major failures by the U.S. government in preventing the September
11th attacks. The first of these was the "failure of imagination."
And yet today, four years after September 11th, we find that our
nation's leaders continue to suffer from this same absolute failure
of imagination. Because, much like failing to imagine that
airplanes could be used as missiles during the 9/11 attacks, we now
find our government stating that they never imagined that levee
walls in New Orleans could break. While our leaders suffer from a
failure to plan for, protect from, and mitigate damages from such
unimaginable disasters, thousands, in fact millions, of innocent
citizens are dying and/or being victimized.
We can no longer stand silent and merely hope for the best in
our leaders. One area that demands immediate attention by our
elected officials is chemical plant and chemical transport
security.
Millions of Americans continue to be at risk from the use and
transport of large quantities of ultra-toxic industrial chemicals.
According to EPA data, more than 100 chemical plants put more than
1 million innocent people at risk. In fact, the Homeland Security
Council estimated that 17,500 people could be
killed by a terrorist attack on just one U.S. chlorine
facility.
Richard Falkenrath, former deputy homeland security advisor to
the White House stated the following, "of all the various remaining
civilian vulnerabilities in America today, one stands alone as
uniquely deadly, pervasive, and susceptible to terrorist attack:
toxic-inhalation-hazard industrial chemicals...the federal
government has made no material reduction in the inherent
vulnerability of hazardous chemical targets inside the United
States. Doing so should be the highest critical infrastructure
protection priority for the Department of Homeland Security in the
next two years."
Given the severity of risk, we can no longer rely on the good
faith of chemical plant owners, nor can we assume that voluntary
standards established by industry are a sufficient safeguard. The
security of the American people requires that we establish
enforceable standards for all chemical facilities--including
railroads. Frighteningly, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
estimates that an attack on a 90-ton rail car could result in up to
100,000 casualties--with people dying at the alarming rate of 100
lives per second.
Legislation introduced by Senator Jon Corzine in 2001 would have
required chemical facilities to submit security plans to federal
officials, who would then approve the plans and monitor compliance.
Earlier this year similar legislation was introduced by
Representative Frank Pallone in the House (H.R. 2237). These
proposals increase plant security, but they also require the use of
cost-effective alternative technologies, including safer chemicals,
that can eliminate some risks entirely. Using less toxic chemicals
in lieu of more toxic chemicals is an important alternative that
must be considered because even the best security at any given
chemical plant can be breached by any fully committed actor-
whether that be a suicidal terrorist or Mother Nature.
Similarly, to prevent chemical disasters on our nations
railways, legislation was also introduced this year to re-route
trains in sensitive areas, such as large population centers.
Senator Joseph Biden's bill (S 1256) and Representative Edward
Markey's bill (H.R. 1414) represent an important first step in
eliminating what experts refer to as "pre-positioned" weapons of
mass destruction in our communities.
In short, as Congress considers legislation again this year, we
strongly urge you to only support legislation that truly protects
workers and surrounding communities from attacks against inherently
dangerous chemical facilities and railroads. The only sure way to
achieve this is to re-route dangerous cargoes and phase-out
inherently dangerous chemicals wherever possible.
There is no excuse for continued inaction. It would be
irresponsible for the 109th Congress to fail again to address this
serious threat to millions of Americans.
Sincerely,
The September 11th Advocates
Kristen Breitweiser
Patricia Casazza
Monica Gabrielle
Mindy Kleinberg
Lorie Van Auken